The Kirby family of Virginia
Background:
The Kirbys were Quakers1 who settled in Halifax County, Virginia probably in the 1750s. Richard is the earliest Kirby I have documented, and he and his wife Elizabeth Baker were received by the South River Monthly Meeting in 1758.2 Their son Henry Baker Kirby married Mary Anderson there in 1761, and raised at least 10 children. He was a blacksmith3 who probably also farmed. In his will he leaves his blacksmith tools to a grandson, possibly because his son Obediah who was also a blacksmith had predeceased him.
Both Henry Baker Kirby and his son Obediah made sure to provide for one of Henry's sons, Hezekiah who was apparently disabled in some way. Henry's will asks his other children to take care of him3, and Obediah's will leaves a sum of "five pounds per annum" for his care.4
Obediah was only 43 when he died in 1809; at least some of his children were still minors. In his will he makes sure to provide for any unborn children, "should my said dear wife Ruth, be now pregnant". Samuel was apparently the oldest son, and may have been killed as a young man in the War of 1812. In 1819 Ruth and her remaining children moved to Marion County, Ohio2 where there was a large community of Quakers. She attended the Fairfield Monthly Meeting there.
Obediah and Ruth had at least four other sons: The oldest surviving son was problably John. Moses and Jacob may have been twins, and both went on to have successful careers in Ohio. Moses was a lawyer, and a state representative, and Jacob became a doctor. Not much is know about Pleasant, apparently the youngest of the five.
John had a six-hundred acre farm in Marion County.1 He and his wife Wilmoth Moore had twelve children; it's not therefore surprising that Wilmoth died at age 39 in 1839! John did not survive her very long, dying in 1845 at age 50.
Henry Kirby was one of the twelve children of John and Wilmoth. He farmed first in Ohio, near Upper Sandusky, and then in Wyandotte County, Kansas, moving there in 1857. He may have served in the Kansas State Militia during the Civil War, and immediately at the close of the war moved again to Jefferson County, Kansas.1 Henry had married Elizabeth Hunter in 1844 and with her had six children.5
In 1868 Zelenda Kirby married6 William Draper, whose family was also of Quaker2 descent. They remained in Kansas, living first in Jefferson County7 and then in Pottawotamie County8 until about 1890, when they settled in Logan County, Oklahoma, the site of the Oklahoma Land Opening of 1889.9
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